grimmwerks

Another video created for Charles Schwab.

A video recently finished for Charles Schwab that I believe is playing in their lobby and done using Motion 3.

Added more flexified goodness for the Flex to Crestron interface I’m building for Abercrombie and Fitch that I described here.  I have to say, being an old Macromedia Director guy  that migrated to Flash (grumpily as the world did) I find Adobe Flex to be …well… it’s a joy to work with; I’ve actually become very excited about coding again.

[Update]: Heh I’ve been uploading all my old work so much lately I didn’t realize that the previous post about this interface was just below…

Have to say it’s quite fun — sort of reminds me of the old Director3d — or at the least the stuff that Barry Swan was coding as billboards before Director added true 3d support.

I’m writing a class for it for a sort of flipping card interface; I’ve seen this done before in Flash but not in Flex (if anyone has examples, feel free to send them my way).

Click the above image to launch it in a new window from it’s home on Amazon S3; for the time being it’s a bit large. Once I finish debugging I’ll post an example here.

Note: Flash does seem to play much slower in the lightbox; click on the top right video tab to see the 3d action.. it really seems to chug in the iframe.

A quick test of the current Flex interface for iDesign communicating to the Creston control system 2 states away..  Using the Flash Crestron SDK, no longer is e-Control tied to a windows only system. Created in such a way that the subcomponents listen for their own joins, the Flex UI loads in the XML that is created by the installer and displays the proper devices listening on the system.

The amp audio channel templates are programmed in such a way that it is repeated for the amount of audio channels the amplifier has; iDesign created the joins in such a way that the channels are iterated 21+ for every channel so that the system can ‘find’ itself.

For the American Psychiatric Association convention, programmed an interactive case study synchronized in realtime across 28 wireless laptop computers. Projected as part of the case study and working against a timer, the responses were displayed by question, broken down by table and percentages. 

At any point within the live presentation, the moderator can return to any case study and review the participants responses. A survey consisting of a number of open-ended questions can be entered multiple times by individuals within each group of each laptop. Communicating through a custom socket server, all data is stored in a database and able to be retrieved at any time, as well as printed out for moderator review.

Programmed a number of networked interactive kiosks within the museum that allowed patrons to view museum history and information in five different languages, installation information, video clips, calendars of upcoming events, as well as a wayfinding system to the various displays. Each kiosk was ‘aware’ of it’s position within the museum and would use itself as a starting point for the museum maps. A separate Kiosk Builder application was created to allow museum personnel to update the kiosk information, images, and dated material. Installations past the current date would not be displayed, and future information could be created in advance. Each kiosk pulls the updated information and xml remotely.

In a partnership with Intel utilizing their VIIV technology, AOL demonstrated their new settop digital video recorder to the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show. They contracted me to create this demonstration using Macromedia Director, originally thinking it could all be done via the timeline. Realizing that this was slowly becoming more of an R and D job for what the set top box would become, I needed the flexibility of easily changing branching, media and logic, so I instead opted for the fully programmed, one-frame-timeline approach that all Director geeks strive for.

The demo was nearly fully functional, controlled completely from a Media Center PC remote. Videos could be controlled, viewed at various sizes. Multiple ‘feeds’ could be viewed, and information regarding each feed, or each video could be seen, playlists created. Advertisements and branding were inserted into playlists.

For the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York,  and working with VideoSonic again,  helped with the programming of three presentation rooms which again used multiple projectors, screens, various media source (dvd/cd/cassette/slide) and a multiple camera teleconferencing system all controlled through Crestron.

The Federal Reserve of New York
Using a number of Crestron control systems, programmed a number of training rooms, a large dinging hall, and a conference room with controlled devices (ie dvd, vcr, projectors, screens, lighting, wireless microphones, Gentner teleconferencing system). Designed the user interfaces for each.

High-end Audio environments for boutique hotel in Times Square. Seven stereo audio zones including four Lounges and a dance floor. Custom programmed DSP processing and control using Biamp Audiaflex and Crestron. Underwater and glass panel speakers create unique ambiance for  Sauna, Pool and Shower Room. Audio Request Digital Music Server and DJ system. Low-profile subwoofers installed in the millwork.

The Core Club is a premiere fitness and dining club located in Manhattan. The audio experience throughout the six floors of the club can be controlled by any of the interactive touchpanels on any floor, as well as a web interface.

Boasting multiple AudioRequests – that is a networked mp3 player and broadcaster – the Club can matrix any audio to any floor or zone, so pristine audio can be heard and controlled from any of the work out rooms, private saunas or dining room.

As it’s described in this writeup:

Besides the standard, expected amenities (art by Basquiat and De Kooning, staircases carved from 1400 square feet of Bianco Venatino slab marble, personal concierge service*), the Core Club also sports:

• A 56-seat theater, where Core’s Hollywood bigshots prescreen their own movies, saving members the price of a ticket — $10.25 they can use to tip the club’s expert staff of penis rinsers.
• Lordly dining designed by Tom Colicchio (Craft, Gramercy Tavern).
• A pristine gym, perfect for working off the jiggling gut designed by Tom Colicchio (Craft, Gramercy Tavern).

Created for a presentation to Bumble and bumble about installing a number of kiosks in their salons. The plan was to create a sort of interactive channel to peruse new hairstyles, or within the chair, pick out and purchase outfits to fit the client’s new look.

It was a pretty quick buildup within Cinema4d – an hour or two – and then using Keynote for the presentation.

Bumble and bumble University is a multifunctional facility using technology to teach advanced haircutting techniques to students that come into NYC from all over the country.

Programmed for VideoSonic, this combination of a Macromedia Director front-end talking to a Crestron Control System back-end allows instructors to control all elements within the classrooms or auditorium: lights can be dimmed, projectors controlled, videos played and rerouted, cameras controlled, audio routed and projector screens extended.  All media elements can be routed and controlled from classroom to classrom or to any of the salons on the upper floors, or from the 103 seat auditorium. Each room has two cameras which can be routed just as any video source, or recorded to dvd media, allowing the school in essence, to be a television studio.

Control system software on Apple iBooks allow instructors to create and control their own shows complete with hardware control and interface switching so that music fades out, lights dim, screens roll out, projectors are started and cameras focused  – all with the touch of a ’scene begin’ button.

The 3rd floor is their university, containing 4 intimate classrooms and a 103 seat auditorium.  The supporting content is distributed to the classrooms using networked digital video servers, while the classes themselves are controlled by a facillitator using WiFi tablet computers.

The 4th and 5th floors are their corporate offices, the 6th floor is a teaching salon, and the 7th & 8th house the salons open to the public, retail shops, and a restaurant.

In addition to the instructional content utilized for the classes, 12 digital video content channels are generated  – information about products, events and industry news – are displayed throughout the facility on BumbleTV.

VideoSonic installed a VIDS12-DVD Server as the both the Display and Control engines for this dynamic exhibition that highlights milestone events in Lightolier’s 100 year corporate history.

Video shows are synchronized on 12 widescreen LCD monitors; the lighting in the showcases illuminate to show the actual objects featured in the video. Using LED lighting in the showcases, the display gently cycles through color changes when not running the shows.

Created for two large 42″ plasmas that also showcased a directional audio setup. I created the videos from a number of images we had of our installations — think I made about 7 of them — and really just randomized through them as attracts to our booth.

As part of the reopening of the Statue of Liberty in 2004, VideoSonic installed a new fire alarm/safety system that would display exit information when the alarms would trigger.

As part of our installation we also created some of the points of interest – at the top of the pedestal we created the supporting videos as support to the Rangers’ tour. Seen by over 6 million visitors a year — story-boarded, designed and edited a 45 minute documentary on the history and technology of the Statue. This presentation is played while a Parks Commissions employee supplies the narrative, lighting the internal structure of the Statue at the appropriate times.

An crossplatform cdrom made for Lehigh County Community College as an interactive searchable brochure and course information kit. Featuring in depth information about the school, a tuition calculator, videos from students and an offline full database of courses.

Created software to help in the automation of documents adhering to the Verizon brand. The application consisted of a database of corporate approved assets tagged by usage-type, and allowed the user to export the chosen elements in a variety of formats, ready for publication. Included in the application were a number of videos demonstrating the correct usage of the Verizon brand.

JP Morgan Stanley : Chase Manhattan

Programmed a cross platform application for Chase Manhattan Bank clients utilizing a searchable database of bank depositories, allowing one to view search results based on various ratings criteria.

Made while still on the Maxon Cinema4d beta test team, testing the Shockwave3d exporter for Macromedia Director.  Strange that 10 years on and we’re almost redoing what had already been done with fake quads in Director – but now in Flash with Papervision3d, or Away3d or others…

I miss doing 3d. Will have to make time for more.

Ascertain Solutions Security Officer Training Online

In 2000 was commissioned to author an e-Learning application that used high-quality local media in a class structure, configured remotely by communicating with a server running Coldfusion pulling test questions from an online database. Tracking the user – their answers and how much time between responses specifically for training purposes – this application was accepted by security insurance companies as adequate training for credit.

Made in the days before iTunes ever existed, this crossplatform CD-ROM for TVT Records highlighted a number of upcoming artists and releases.  Each artist was given it’s own ’site’ (following the website theme wanted by the album, complete with mac os 9 inspired browser frame) with artwork and feel based upon the album artwork.  Users could listen to the embedded audio clips, watch the music videos (in custom video players), see artist images, and read about the products — all whilest rocking to some heavy tunes.

Designed and authored a number of other cdroms for TVT including artists such as the Black Crowes with Jimmy Page and the Beastie Boys’ DJ Hurricane – which used Thomas Dolby’s (yes of ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ fame) Beatnik technology which was extremely ahead of it’s time — allowing users to control a virtual sampler and remix their own version of the single.  For this I had to break apart the sounds of the actual single and make a new triggerable version.

Assisted in creating and programming a custom store control system for the Toys R Us flagship store in Times Square. Connected by a multiuser socket server, the entire store is controlled by Director applications speaking a variety of protocols. These included the 10-foot external video marquee, one 152 individual 6’ scrollers, lighting controllers, 32 internal video servers, 7 sound and the 20’ tall Jurassic Park dinosaur. All media elements and events are entered into a MySQL database and the main application fires each event according to the EDL (edit decisions list) that gets loaded for every two hours of scheduling. All media elements scheduled are tracked for any advertising reports. An additional Photobooth in the main store area allows customers to pay for their images and any custom messages to be displayed in Times Square for all of New York to see.

For additional writeups see here and here.